Faerie Lore and Legends

4500 B.C.E. to ca. 500 B.C.E.
The Mythological Cycle:
The understanding of the folktales, folklore, myths, and legends of “Otherworldly” creatures who landed in Ireland in prehistoric times is known as “The Mythological Cycle.” A notable work exists called the Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland) or otherwise known as the “Book of Invasions” which is a Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the history, mythology, and origins of the Irish race from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages.
The Fomorians:
According to the myths and legends of early Ireland, the very first human-like inhabitants of the Green Island of Eire were the Fomorians. The Fomorians are believed to be beings who preceded the Gods, similar to the Greek Titans representing Gods of Chaos and wild nature. They were also depicted as the supernatural undead and magical beings of the Underworld or Otherworld.  They were seen as a giant demonic race of beings who lived in boats off the coast of Ireland, often coming ashore to plunder and pillage all that existed on this grand Green Isle.  According to medieval scholars, the name “Fomorians”, “Fomhoire”, “Formorian”, “Fomoraig”, and “Faoi-Mhuir” came from “Fomoire” a word combination of “fomó”  meaning “giant” or “pirate”, the Gaelic “Faoi-mhuir” meaning “beneath the sea”, with the elements ‘muire’ or ‘sea’  or “mor” as “spirit” or “phantom” giving them the reputation as ‘sea pirates or under-sea phantoms.’  Some legends suggest that the Fomorians originally came from Asia or Northern Africa having been birthed by Noah’s son Ham after he was cursed by Noah. Some believe the Fomorians were the descendants of GogmaGog. They left Africa as seafarers who were often depicted as having black skin, black haired with the body of a man and the head of a goat according to the Eleventh century text called the “Book of the Dun Cow” or the Lebor na hUidre. In some manners, they have similarities to the descriptions of Ancient Egyptian and Nubian Gods, Goddesses, and half-human/half-animal creatures.  Some of them have also been described as having one eye, one arm, and one leg; while others were fancied as elegant beauties as with “Elatha” the father of “Bres”. They were also notorious for their powers over the forces of nature, such as being able to bring forth fog, storms, diseases, blights, and plagues with their so-accused “evil” magic.  Through history, they claimed several famous royalties, especially in guise as “kings” by various names, the most remembered as King Conaing, King Morc, King Indech, King Tethra, King Balor, King Elatha, the Warrior Cichol, the Smith Dolb, the Steward Liagh, the Poet Oghma, and Queen Ceithlenn. Throughout the lands of present day Ireland and the United Kingdom, are their mythical tromping grounds of Conaing’s Tower, Tory Island, The Hebrides, Rathlin, Islay, Lochlann (Norway), and Dun Aengus. By the period of history when they participated in the Second Battle of Magh Tuiredh, the rumor was that their fleet stretched far and wide from the Northeastern coast of Ireland all the way to Norway.
The first Fomorian King to have settled in Ireland was “Conaing” taking root on all the Northern Islands along the coasts of Ireland, Scotland, and Norway. In some respects, they had a “under the seas” glamour about them having lived “beneath the waves” giving some affiliation with “mer-folk”, “selchies,”  and “mermen or mermaids”. They were then reputed to have split themselves up into different tribes, residing in the Underworld, which was later ruled by “Tethra” the Fomorian Faerie King.  Often described to have the color and composure that is common-place for a Nubian with the darkest of black skin and hair, oddly though “Elatha” the father of “Bres” was depicted as having the most “golden hair” and the handsomest man in sight.  He seemed the fairest of the leaders, not being so blood-thirsty as the other Fomorian leaders, and very interested in justice. In later years, he refused to go to war with his son “Bres” against the later faerie invaders known as the “Tuatha de Danann” as he felt such actions was “unjust”.  By right of the myths and legends, the Fomorians were unique in their DNA, racial, and family lineage with their own customs and language dialects than the other invading inhabitants of Ireland.  Whereas the Nemedians, the Fir-Bolg, and the Tuatha de Danann were believed to have shared the same DNA, family lines, languages, and were considered to be of the same races. At a later point in history, they were known to have intermarried with the Tuatha De Danann according to faerie tales and legends.  Popular stories relating to the Fomorians were the “Bres Mac Elatha and the Tuatha De Danann”, “The Second Battle of Magh Tuiredh”, “How Balor was Defeated”, “The Courting of Emer”, “The Fate of the Children of Turenn”, “the Fir Bolg”, “The Story of the Tuatha De Danann”, “The Death Tales of the Tuatha De Danann”, “Credhe’s Lament”, “the Hard Servant”, and “Partholon” myths.  They came to be defeated by the first invaders of Ireland from Greece known as the “Partholon” by 2680 or 2061 B.C.E. (dates differ to scholar’s theories).  Shortly after defeat by the Partholon, they took back the land by instilling a plague that killed off the Partholon, laying them waste in the fields. They battled again with the Nemeds and then finally defeated and vanquished by the Tuatha de Danann. Ever since, any settled pirates or sea-based raiders were labeled “Fomorians”.
By Thomas Baurley
 

Bibliography:

• Anomymous scholar:
  11th c. C.E. Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland)
  

• Encyclopedia Mythica:
  2012 The Fomorians. Website referenced March 2012.
  http://www.pantheon.org/articles/f/fomorians.html.
• Magic & Mythology:
  2012 The Fomorians. Website referenced March 2012.
  http://www.shee-eire.com/Magic&Mythology/Races/Formorians/Page1.htm
• Slavin, Michael:
  2010 “The Book of Tara”. Wolfhound Press: Dublin, Ireland.
• Walsh, Brian:
  2006 “The Riddle of the Hobbit”: August 28, 2006: Time Magazine Online:
  http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1399614,00.html.
• Wikipedia: The Free Online Encyclopedia.
  2012 “The Fomorians”. Website reerenced February 2012.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomorians
• W.Y. Evans-Wentz:
  1966 “The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries”. Citadel Press: New York.

Thor ~ a.k.a. “God of Thunder”, Þórr (Old Norse), Þunor, Þunraz, or Donar (German), or þonar ????? (Runic).
~ The Germanic and Norse God of Thunder, lightning, storms, strength, oak trees, protection of mankind, healing, fertility, and hallowing.

From earlier than the Ragnarok mythology onwards to the 2011 Hollywood blockbuster film of the same name, “Thor” has been a stable part of human history, folklore, and mythology. He is commonly depicted as a “God of storms, thunder, lightning, oak trees, and/or strength” in most of his history throughout proto Indo-European religions and faiths. In Academic literature, he is mentioned alot from the Roman occupation of Germania, during tribal expansions of the Migration Period, from the Viking Age, and to the incorporation of Christianity into Scandinavia as well as Ireland. The English day “Thursday” is named after him as “Thor’s Day”. He is often described as red haired (head and beard), muscular, and fierce-eyed carrying his war hammer “Mjöllnir”, wearing his iron gloves “Járngreipr”, sporting his “Megingjörð” belt, and brandishing his “Gríðarvölr” staff. He is the son of Odin and Fjörgyn (Earth). From his father Odin, he has several brothers. He was married to the Golden haired Goddess “Sif”, Lover to “jötunn Járnsaxa”, father of the God/desses Þrúðr (valkyrie through Sif), Magni (through Jarnsaxa), Móði (through an unknown mother), and stepfather of Ullr. He has two very close servants – Þjálfi and Röskva. He has two favorite goats that pulls his chariot “Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr”.

Throughout Norse myth, “Thor” is mentioned in numerous tales, and is referred to as potentially upwards of 14 different names. He is often corresponded to the Gaulish God of Thunder “Toran” or “Taran” and the Irish God “Tuireann”. He has been attributed with living in three dwellings through his history which are Bilskirnir, Þrúðheimr, and Þrúðvangr. He is often depicted as “reckless” and notable for the mass slaughter of his foes. He invokes fear and terror in battle, and it is with the mythical battle with the dragon-like serprent “Jörmungandr” in Ragnarok that he is very popular. He also was written about much in Viking Age folklore as “Th?rr” and is where in written history, he is first known. This was the period of time when he was the most popular as a defiant response to Christianity trying to take hold in the lands where they fused. Many “Vikings” often wore talismans representing his war hammer to oppose Christianity. As most of German history was unwritten, much of the written lore about Thor in relation to the Germanic peoples was done by their conquerors, the Romans. Within these writings, he was often merged with the Roman God Jupiter or Jove, or Hercules as first found in the works of Tacitus. He appeared on Roman votive objects and coins dating in Germanic regions as early as the 2nd and 3rd century of the Common Era (C.E. / A.D.). The first recorded instance of his name as “Donar” was on the Nordendorf fibula jewelry in the 7th century C.E. in Bavaria. By 723 C.E., Saint Boniface felled a oak tree dedicated to “Jove” which was called the “Donar Oak” in Fritzlar, Hesse, Germany. In the 8th century, there were numerous tales about “Thunor” (Old English version of “Thor”), as well as the poem “Solomon and Saturn” and the expression þunnorad (“thunder ride”). In the 9th century, the Old Saxon Baptismal Vow In Mainz, Germany records his name in directions on how to get Germanic Pagans to renounce their native Gods as Demons. By the 11th century, Adam of Bremen describes a statue of Thor in the “Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum” that sits in the Temple at Uppsala in Gamla Uppsala, Sweden listing “Thor” as the ruler of the sky, governor of thunder and lightning, storms, winds, fine weather, and fertility. He was also described as looking like Jupiter. It is also at this time that two notable archaeological artifacts with runic inscriptions invoking Thor were created in England (aka “The Canterbury Charm” to call Thor for healing a wound by banishing a thurs) and Sweden (aka “the Kvinneby amulet” to bring forth protection by Thor and his hammer). By the 12th century, after Christianity took hold in Norway, Thor was still found heavily worshipped and invoked by the Norse for help. Iconography at this time of King Olaf II of Norway being christianized also held Thor’s elements and depictions. The 13th century “Poetic Edda” which was compiled from traditional sources from Pagan eras, Thor is mentioned in the poems Völuspá, Grímnismál, Skírnismál, Hárbarðsljóð, Hymiskviða, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Alvíssmál, and Hyndluljóð. “Völuspá” tells a tale and premonition of the future talking about the Death of Thor as he would be doing battle with the great serpent during Ragnarok and dying from its venom. It is after this that the sky turns black as fire engulfs the world, the stars disappear, flames will dance in the sky, steam will rise, the world will be flooded with water, and earth will appear again green and fertile. Through this rebirth, Thor reappears wading through the rivers Körmt, Örmt, and the two Kerlaugar where he will sit as judge at the base of the Yggdrasil (cosmological world tree). He is then depicted as travelling “from the east” by means of a ferryman Hárbarðr who is Odin is disguise and is rude to him refusing him passage forcing Thor to walk.
He arrives at Ægir’s home telling Ægir he must prepare feasts for the Gods.

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Australian National Museum, Canberra, ACT, Australia

The Dreaming and “Dreamtime”

As I take a career and life journey’s “Walkabout” around Australia and Europe during the Summer of 2011, during my visit to the Australian National Museum I really for the very first time embrace the concept of the Australian Aborigine “Dreaming” and “Dreamtime” that I was first introduced to during my Anthropology of Religion class I took during my college years at Florida State University. Nevermore did the concept “sink” and “settle” in me more than at this time of my life that I could truly say in a “Stranger in a Strange Land’s” true essence of “grokking” the concept fully and spiritually. “The Dreaming” tells of the journey and actions of the Ancestral Beings when they were creating the natural world. An animistic narrative telling of a “timeless time” of formative creation and perpetual creating. This took place during a mythological era called “Dreamtime”. This is a sacred era when the ancestral Totemic Spirit Beings formed “The Creation”. The philosophy is infinite and demonstrates how the past and present is linked together to prophesize the future. The concept of “Dreaming” is often used to refer to a person’s or group’s set of beliefs and spirituality. The Australian Aborigine might refer to “Shark Dreaming”, “Kangaroo Dreaming”, or “Eucalypus Dreaming” and this would refer to particular natural items or life forms in their resident area or country, laying down patterns of life from which to follow. This creates their mythos, their creation stories, and their folklore as to why certain things have come to be. They believe that every person exists eternally in the Dreaming and represents both the spirit that existed before physical life began and is the spirit that exists after death as a “Spirit Being” or “Spirit Child”. The Spirit Being can only exist physically by being born from a mother, entering the fetus during the fifth month of pregnancy. Upon birth, that child is to become a special custodian of the land and country to which s/he was born, required to learn the stories, lore, and songlines of that particular place. Our natural world, especially that which is within one’s cultural heritage, race, and species, is what provides the link between the people and “The Dreaming”. The Act of Dreaming and the stories that are within them carry the truth from the past, blended together with the code for the Law, to operate and facilitate the present. Every story within “The Dreaming” weaved as creation through the “Milky Way” is a complete long complex tale, many of which discuss consequences and our future being. During the Dreamtime, the Australian Aborigines believed that the creators were both men and women who took on spiritual forms. These “cultural heroes and heroines” sometimes defined as spirits, other times as “God/desses”, would travel across a formless land, create sacred sites and significant places of interest during their travels weaving story and songlines that would guide the spirit beings they birthed in Creation. They joined together with various spirits to create the land, the waterways, the geographical features of the land, the skies, the seas, the plants, the animals, the stones, and all the other wo/men that exist. Every event that takes place would leave a record in the land. To the Dharawal, “Biami” the Great Spirit, went up into the skies to watch over their people and to make sure they obeyed his rules. Spirits habitating in waterholes, caves, and other spirit places to watch over or affect those people that lived near them. This was one of the reasons that another tribe would not conquer tribal lands for doing so would place them in a land full of strange and potentially hostile spirits. The Australian Aborigines believed in both good and evil spirits they called “Goonges”. Children would be warned not to go to certain areas for the “goonge will get them”. Same for the oceans, for they too contained spirits underneath the waters and explained deaths at sea, getting caught in a rip current, or attacks by various sea creatures. The Creators, or the Ancestral Spirits, were shape-changers who were half-human, both male and female, who used the powers, great wisdom, and intentions to create all of being. They lived and retired in the sky clouds. The Aborigine believed that every living creature were created by the Creators as “spirit-children” and/or “spirit animals” during the Dreamtime and were assigned to live in particular spirit places. They believed that their own birth was the result of a spirit child entering into the mother’s body and was brought into being during conception by the specific actions or designs of the creators to make spirit children in the Dreamtime. They also believed that after death their spirit would return to the spirit-place to await rebirth. It was in Dreamtime that the Creators and ancestral spirits created the world which we all live. The Australian aborigines embrace all of life and the phenemena that affects if as part of the vast and complex system of relationships that go back to the original acnestral Totemic Spirits of the Dreaming. The Dreaming establishes a culture’s and regional country’s laws, taboos, structures, and history in order to ensure the continuity of life and land in that area. Breaking these cause destruction to the areas that one’s spirit is meant to guard or caretake.

Australian National Museum, Canberra, ACT, Australia

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Australian National Museum, Canberra, ACT, Australia

The Milky Way and Crocodile Story

Upon wandering around the Australian National Museum in Canberra of the Australian Capital Territory, I discovered this fine bark painting. This unique Aboriginal folklore masterpiece consists of a application of ochres and polymer on bark with wooden restrainers attached to its rear. It was done in the 1980’s by Galuma Wirrpanda of the Aboriginal Manggalili clan in the Baniyala lands of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the painting that tells the story about the Milky Way and the Crocodile according to Aboriginal myth. This painting shows the “milnguya” or “Milky Way” as a river. A constellation in the Milky Way is seen as “The Crocodile” which is surrounded by stars that represent the deceased members of the Aboriginal Manggalili clan. The overturned canoe and paddles refer to the drowned ancestors of the Munuminya and Yikawanga who found their way to the Milky Way by following string made from the fur of the possum Marrngu.

This mythos was also very sacred to the Ancient Maya. Displayed is the crocodile mouth in the Milky Way, representing a dark rift called the “Xibalba” or “The Underworld”. It has similarities to that which the Aboriginal Australians and the Mayans who noticed it and embedded into their lore as well. Each night, this constellation changes its orientation causing the Milky Way to become north/south oriented on some nights and then on others it alternates to east and west. This relates to Aboriginal creation stories. It is told that the date of present creation took place on August 13, 3114 B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) On this date, the hearth was laid out – three stars from Orion were put in place by the Gods. During Mid-August each year, the Milky Way would be right overhead and this change in orientation would be highly notable. It was on February 5, 3112 B.C.E., two years after the hearth was created, that the cosmic tree of creation was lifted up to the heavens. On the 5th of February every year the Milky Way would also align directly overhead showing changes that is opposite to the mid-August alignment). Many believe that the sky is seen as a re-enactment of creation. As the constellations move, so do the cycle of stories from dusk to dawn. When the Milky Way is aligned to the north and south, it represents the world tree. As it turns to east and west, it becomes the crocodile tree that manifests as a canoe carrying the maize Gods across the sky in the Mayan Myth.

Australian National Museum, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Sources cited:

• Museum Display placards at the Australian National Museum
• Ethnographical discussions with Australians

Return of the Faeries: Da Return of De Faeries
by Kelfin Patricks Oberon

“The Apocalypse is upon us now ….”

© 1986-1990; 1990-2000; 2001-2010; 2011: Technogypsie.com/Treeleavesoracle.org/Leaf McGowan. Edited and adapted earlier versions for use in training a magical apprentice rite/workshop on Monday, 16 August 2010. No portion of this text may be copied or reproduced without permission from author: [email protected].
The Eightfold Path to Altered States of Consciousness
In Ritual or spellcraft, the ritualist/magician/witch/Druid needs to incorporate the altered states of consciousness in order to tap into a higher consciousness and the field of energy from which to do magical workings. This is also the method utilized for connecting with otherworldly entities on their levels of existence – whether that be the otherworld, the faerie world, the spirit realm, ancestral realm, or Realm of Deities. The more elements that can be implemented for altered consciousness from the 8 fold path, the stronger your altered state of consciousness will become, and the stronger, more dramatic, and serious the working will be. Including all 8 forms of the Eight Fold Path will ensure complete success with your working – however, sometimes it is not logistically possible to include all 8.
By mastering your state of consciousness at will with intent helps focalize the energy and controls the magical current, opening communication with Deity and entities, and finding successful results. Altering one’s consciousness is not always safe, so one needs to be aware of what they are doing, the process by which they are operating within, and what methodology they utilize to achieve various results. It is the means to achieving Prana, Mana, or the Magical Life Force.
1. MEDITATION OR TRANCE
“Path of Breath” – The first of the Eightfold Path is accomplished by altering state of consciousness through specific forms of breathing. This is often achieved by emptying the mind, embracing a state of stillness, encompassing a state of serenity, and inducing a state of tranquility. Implementation of visualization, focused thought, projection, intention, concentration of intention, and trance work are all elements of this path. The highest point in the first path is projection of the astral body.
2. RITUAL/CHANTS/SPELLS/CHARMS
The second of the the Eightfold Path is the creation of sacred space and by doing deliberate intentional activities imbued with symbology, meaning, and projection. By creating a space in which to do the sacred, you achieve altering a point in time, space, and continuum. When you utilize symbols, spells, chants, tools, amulets, talismans, and mantras – it creates focus, rhythm, rhyme, replication, and circulates the energy achieved within and without.
3. RHYTHM, MUSIC, AND DANCE
The third of the Eightfold Path is by incorporating rhythmic repetitive motions, dancing, drumming, or music making. Dancing repetitively or wildly, ecstatically, or frantic rhythmic moving or motion of the body, spirit, and/or soul creates trance-like states, altered states of consciousness, and chemical/physical changes in the body, mind, and spirit. Circle dances, spiral dances, cone of power raising, drum circle dances, etc. will circulate, build up, and propel energy within and without.
4. ASCETIC PATH: FASTING, DEPRIVATION, PURIFICATION
The fourth of the Eightfold Path is accomplished by placing the physical body into an extreme state of deprivation, deprival, or change of environment from the usual comfort zone. This can include fasting, sensory deprivation, purification ordeals, etc. Some physical environments that can induce these atmospheres are sweat lodges, saunas, hot springs, isolation tanks, and/or pure darkness. By deprivation, the physical and mental body will react with its own energy fields creating visions, omens, oracles, prophecies, and hallucinations. The mind will generate images, ideas, thoughts, and processes that will assist the body to survive or transition.
5. IMBIBING SACRED PLANTS, “SPIRITS”, OR ALTEROGENS
The fifth of the Eightfold Path is communing with Spirits or entities that can include a “chemical” nature that poisons or possesses the physical body and mental state of the brain. Utilizing the “Spirits” or entities of plants and substances to chemically alter the mind/body into a state of consciousness. Drugs, alcohol, ethnobotanical plants with shamanic side effects are common instruments for this alteration. This path is onne of the most notorious instant methods for altering the state of consciousness, especially when one has difficultly doing it by means of their physical body without the introduction of a separate substance/spirit into the body. One needs to have a good relationship (or develop one) with the plant or spirit in question. Every plant, alcohol, or drug has a “spirit” – this is why alcohol is often referred to as “spirits”. It has a consciousness and by blending together that spirit with yours, will alter the state to the consciousness one seeks. This can include food and drink – as anything entering into the body alters its chemical and biological state. Cakes and Ale, Waters of Life, hosts, Body & Blood of Christ, sacrements, etc are common found types of this path in most religions. This can also include incense, oils, scents, and fragrances that can alter one’s being by the senses. Read my article on “Spirits” of Alcohol here: http://www.technogypsie.com/reviews/?p=1080.
6. PATH OF THE FLESH / SEX
The sixth path is the Path of the Flesh or Sexual Magic / Tantra / Love / Lust. The utilization of “sexual energy” as a means to open one’s self to the spirits. Sexual energy, generated alone or with a partner, raises the strongest forms of magical power, contact with prana, mana, the akh, the ba, the ka, and instantly alters the state of consciousness by a natural means of chemicals with reaction in the body that can even overpower the fifth path of the plant or altergen. This is accomplished with masturbation, Sexual thought, Sexual play or stimulation, Intercourse and/or interaction with others that can introduce this state instantly. This is often accomplished in ritual with Sex Magic, The Great Rite, Tantra, etc. The rituals of love and lust can also tap this energy and be embraced to alter the state of consciousness with which to connect to spirits, Deities, the Otherworld, and prana.
7. PATH OF ORDEALS/PAIN
The seventh path is by going through an ordeal, a tragedy, embracing or experiencing pain or physical/emotional trauma. This, like chemicals or spirits, sex or deprivation, chemically and physically alters the mind, body, and spirit and launches a state of altered consciousness. By embracing this altered state – it becomes easier to focus that manifestation of power into projected will to focus on what is willed to be achieved. The intentional or careful use of pain to place the body into an altered state of consciousness is the most common ordeal one can manifest. Pain and endurance, trials, or challenges will effect change in state sometimes as powerfully equal as the path of the flesh or sex. This is often done in ritual or ceremony by means of flagellation, BDSM, tattooing, blood-runes carved into the flesh, the Sundance, cutting, wounding, or self infliction.
8. POSSESSION/EVOCATION/PATH OF THE HORSE
The final path of the Eight is Possession, Evocation, or allowing oneself to be ridden like a horse. This is the intentional act of permitting direct spirit-possession to bring Deities or spirts into the body for a short period of time. This can also be the most dangerous form of altering one’s consciousness. Some individuals are wired to do this, others are not. Much study and focus must be achieved before embracing this method.

Niamh
by Leaf McGowan, Techno Tink, LLC.

“Niamh of the lovely hair” was the daughter of the Irish Sea God, Manannon Mac Lir. She was the Queen of the Tir na n-Og, the mythological race of Faeries who lived in the Land of the Eternal Youth. She would often ride on her Faerie steed “Embarr” across the waves to the West Coast of Ireland. On one of these trips, she met members of the warrior group known as the Fianna. One of the warriors, a bard named Oisin, she came to have a liking for. He fell for her with love at first sight. She quickly took him on her horse with her back to Tir na n-Og.

She was most notorious for having been the Faerie princess who lured off the great Bard Oisin to Faerieland, where they were married, and she had hoped he would have been fine residing in the Land of the Eternal Youth. After three years in Faerie, He grew weary and tired, missing his family, and asked to return to his land to see them. She set him off on the same white magical steed that she brought him to the land of Faerie on, the horse “Embarr” (which means “Imagination”), and warned him not to step foot off his horse when he returned to the human world. He discovered three years in Faerie was three hundred years in Human.

He accidentally fell off Embarr while trying to help some farmers move a big stone, and Embarr ran home across the waves. Poor Oisin immediately became a blind old man who wandered Ireland searching for his family and Niamh. He could never find the entrance to Tir na n-Og again. Niamh waited and waited for him, but Oisin never returned. She had become pregnant with his daughter, Plur na mBan, a beautiful Faerie princess known as “The Flower of the Lady.”

After many years, Niamh returned to the mortal world to search Ireland high and low for her sweet Oisin. She was too late; Oisin had died and disappeared forever. His tomb is somewhere up in Northern Ireland near the Giant’s Causeway. While searching for Oisin, she meets Brittany’s faeries, who invite her to join them. She didn’t but rather sent them a magical moving picture of herself. This upset Brittany Faeries, who placed her in a deep wood where she wandered for a long time with a light on her forehead, eternally lost. After discovering her escape, she experienced great disappointment and anger with Brittany Fae. She returned to Tir na n-Og, presumably casting a magic spell that took all of Brittany’s faerie children with her in revenge.

 
Cloud Omens
Aeromancy or Cloud Omens or Cloud Reading is a form of augury or divination outdoors in nature. The word aeromancy comes from the Greek word “aero” which means “air” and “manteia” which means “divination”. It is the divination by observing events in the air or wind including cloud shapes, weather conditions, rainbows, changes in weather patterns, storms, and atmospheric phenomena (including comets and meteors). It can also be used to foretell or predict weather or climate. Its history is popular as far back as use by the Greeks and Romans. Particular attention was paid to cumulus clouds and the shapes, sizes, forms, and pictures they would create. Clouds through history form shapes, faces, fantastic landscapes, mythical creatures, and wondrous images. Theories behind these images are based on one’s intuition trying to create an order out of randomness and some believe are reflections of the workings of the inner self. Seers look for these images not only in clouds, but fire embers, nature, water, smoke, and entrails of sacrificed animals in order to establish auguries and portents for the future. Aeromancy can be achieved by studying wind patterns such as with the seer tossing sand or dirt into the wind after asking a question and the answer being retrieved by the nature of the dust cloud. Another method involves throwing a handful of seeds and observing the pattern that the seeds form on the ground. This is sometimes referred to as Austromancy. To many ancients, the wind was the actual breath of life of their God/desses and was one of the most divine of elements. Alternatively, some believed that heated winds were the work of demons. Observing clouds is the most popular form. Some popular cumulus formations that are known meanings are the Pegasus Cloud represents the mythical Greek God Pegasus. This usually represents meaning that a person will be rising above a problem or escaping from something that is worrying them. It can also be symbolic of someone achieving something great such as in the myth where Bellerophon tried to fly Pegasus to Mount Olympus and can take on a meaning of a Olympian endeavor being accomplished in someone’s life. UFO Clouds appear like an Unidentified Flying Object in clear skies or over deserts and when refracting light from the setting sun gives such an image. Carl Jung philosophizes that modern man wants to see flying saucers as he yearns for the wholeness of the inner self symbolized by the shape of a circle. In the East these can be seen as mandalas to aid meditation to establish the inner equilibrium. These can mean wholeness and completion. Grim Reaper Clouds are usually death-like images or symbols in cloud patterns that usually represent death of the old so the new can emerge. These can be seen as positives. Angel Clouds have been seen as portents of untimely death or as a messenger or a blessing that all will go well. During Elvis Presley’s cross-country road trip in 1964, he claimed he saw a angelic vision in the clouds of Stalin and believed it meant that God was displeased with him. This face then turned into a smiling face of Jesus which he believed was a portent of his untimely death. Rocket Ship could mean a symbol of rapid movement in one’s life, breaking free of physical limitations, or explorations of one’s personal or inner space and time. By viewing patterns of clouds in the sky, it is believed that one achieves the opportunity to examine what they see and what questions the mind wants to see based on the symbology and patterning of the clouds. It is very similar in practice to the modern psychology practice of ink blot testing. Based on how a person interprets a pattern can determine much about intuition and train of thought.
One recommended method of cloud prophecy is before looking into the skies, is to ask a direct question, relax, and allow the mind to accept whatever it sees. Before making out a specific pattern, use your imagination to see what might be the connection and do some research into the meanings of different symbols.
Related forms of prophecy are “Eromancy” which involves divination by taking omens from the air, “Austromancy” as divination of studying winds and cloud shapes, “Anemoscopy” as divination by studying the winds including studying the speed, direction, and sound of the wind or observing certain objects blown by the wind. “Nephomancy” is divination by studying clouds and their colors, shapes, and positions in the sky. This practice was called “neladoracht” by the ancient Druids. “Chaomancy” is a form of aeromancy looking for visions in the sky such as in the shapes of clouds and cloud formations. “Ceraunoscopy” is divination by observing thunder and lightning. “Brontoscopy” is divination by listening to the sound of thunder. “Roadomancy” or “astromancy” is divination by observing stars, comets, and meteors. “Cometomancy” is specifically the taking of omens from comets as “meteormancy” is from meteors.
 

Cloud Omens

 
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Wishing Trees
“Wishing Trees” are very common throughout Ireland, England, and Scotland. They are usually individual trees upon which “folk magic”, “folk spells”, “faerie offerings”, or “prayers” are offered. Sometimes it is particular to a specific species, where the tree lives, or how it looks. Many times they are associated with faeries or a particular Deity. They are very common alongside sacred wells in Ireland and the UK. The practice usually involves petitions or offerings made to the tree, a nature spirit associated with the tree, a Saint, a God/dess, or the ancestors with a request for a wish to be fulfilled.

Coin trees involve the offering of coins to a particular tree. These are often hammered into an old trunk, branch, or small tree. Sometimes these are oaks, rowan trees, hawthorns, ash, or thorn trees. Some hawthorns serve for fertility magic such as a common one in Argyll, Scotland by the Ardmaddy House. Sometimes hundreds of coins are hammered into the bark and wood with the belief that a wish will be granted for each of the coins added. A similar one that is well known is the sacred well of ST. Maree in Loch Maree, Gairloch, Scotland has hundreds of coins hammered into it. Also all over the Yorkshire Dales, such as in the pictures shown here I took during a hike, are found hundreds of coins offered to nature spirits and/or faeries for a granting of a wish.

Clootie Wish Trees (a.k.a. Cloughtie or Rag Trees) are found next to sacred wells throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland. This involves the practice of tying a piece of cloth, often called “clouties”, “clooties”, or “cloughties” to ask for an answer to a prayer, a wish, and/or a petition. As the rag decays, so will the illness; or so will the petition come true. It is a form of sympathetic magic. One of the most well-known “wishing trees” is the Madron Well in Cornwall. With the Madron well, a sacred well of healing, it is believed that as the cloth rots, the ailment that one is seeking a cure for disappears. Even Charles Darwin recorded the finding of a “wishing tree” in his travels in Argentina called “Walleechu” which was treated by the local inhabitants as a Deity. It was festooned with offerings such as cigars, food, water, and cloth hung from the branches by bright strips of colored thread. A popular wishing tree in Hong Kong is the “Lam Tsuen Wishing Tree” near the “Tin Hau Temple” in Lam Tsu where paper is tied to an orange and thrown up in the trees that stick will grant the petitioner a wish. The wishing tree next to Brigid’s Well in Kildare is a common tree for petitioning healing requests.

The Wishing Tree at Tobar Ghobnatan Holy Well
not only consists of rags, but trinkets, rosaries, jewelry, prayer cards, toys, personal effects, and other items given as offerings. You can see these at Tobar Ghobnatan Wishing Trees. The concept is to leave behind something of yourself or someone that you love who is in need of prayers, healing, or petitions. The concept with the rags is that when it decays so will the illness that it represents. This is a kind of sympathetic magical rite.

Unfortunately, some pilgrims to the sites don’t realize how the spell or magic works. You can see this when they tie a piece of a plastic bag on the tree. Plastic will take forever to decay, and so will the illness it is to represent. If only they knew! In addition to the rags, others leave coins, jewelry, rings, prayer cards, figurines, toys, personal effects, and clothing items such as belts, shoes, garments, and trinkets. The cloutie and Wish trees found at Tobar Ghobnatan are considered to be dedicated to the Matron Saint of Ballyvourney and sacred Bee-Keeping mistress, Saint Ghobnatan holy pilgrimage site and monastic settlement known as “Tobar Ghobnatan”. This is the legendary home of St. Gobnait/Ghobnatan. It is located a kilometer south of the village of Ballyvourney where her church Móin Mór (a.k.a. Bairnech) was built.

Goddess or St Brigid Statue

The Goddess Brigid
a.k.a. St. Brigid of Kildare, Brigid of Ireland, “Brigit”, “Bridget”, “Bridgit”, “Brid”, “Bride”, “Mary of the Gael”, or “Naomh Brid”
As a Saint and Actual Living Person: St. Brigid – c. 451 – 525 C.E. (A.D.)
Goddess of Poetry, Magic, Healing, Smithcraft, Learning, Common People, Flocks/Stock/Yield of the Earth, and Inspiration.
Patron Saint of Ireland along with Saint Patrick and St. Columba. Early Christian Nun, Abbess, and Founder of several Monasteries.
Holiday: February 1st as “Saint Brigid’s Day, Candlemas, Imbolc, or Oimelc.

As a Saint and Actual Living Person: St. Brigid – c. 451 – 525 C.E. (A.D.)  Goddess of Poetry, Magic, Healing, Smithcraft, Learning, Common People, Flocks/Stock/Yield of the Earth, and Inspiration. Patron Saint of Ireland along with Saint Patrick and St. Columba. Early Christian Nun, Abbess, and Founder of several Monasteries. Holiday: February 1st as “Saint Brigid’s Day, Candlemas, Imbolc, or Oimelc.

“As the Goddess: ” Throughout Europe, especially in England and Ireland, was the Pagan worship of the Goddess Brigid. She was the Goddess of Poetry, Magic, Healing, Smithcraft, Learning, Common People, Flocks/Stock/Yield of the Earth, and Inspiration. She is identified in Lebor Gabala ‘renn as the Daughter of Dagda and a poet; a half-sister of Cermait, Aengus, Midir, and Bodb Derg. In the Cath Maige Tuireadh, she is responsible for inventing keening while mourning as well as the whistle used for night travel.

Her British Counterpart Brigantia was the Celtic equivalent of the Roman Minerva and the Greek Athena. She is also the Goddess of all things perceived to be of higher dimensions such as high-rising flames, highlands, hill-forts, upland areas, activities depicted as lofty or elevated such as wisdom, excellence, perfection, high intelligence, poetic eloquence, craftsmanship, healing, Druidic knowledge, the home, the hearth, and skills with warfare.

When the Celts came to Ireland in 500 B.C.E., they brought with them the Druidic religion. Druidism was polytheistic with many Deities who interacted with humanity for good and for bad. It was a common practice for various Deities to be assigned to certain regions or places where a cult site would be established. One was established, as early, if not earlier than, 500 C.E. in what is now known as Kildare.

The shrine and cult were dedicated to the Goddess Brigid. In Celtic cosmology, the chief God was The Dagda Mor (God of musicians, and magic) who ruled over the people of Dana (the Tuatha de Danann or the Faerie folk). Dana was the Mother of Irish God/desses. She was also associated as “Brid” the “Poetess” which is identified with the Goddess “Brigantia” who ruled over the Brigantes – a powerful Celtic tribe in North Britain. Brigantia ruled over water and the rivers – the Brighid in Ireland, the Braint in Wales, and the Brent in England. “Brid” meant “exalted one”.

She is often referred to as a “Triple Goddess” – the Three Sister Goddesses named Brid: (1) Goddess of poetry and traditional learning; (2) Goddess of the Smith’s Art; and (3) Goddess of Healing. Through time, these three Goddesses and their attributes were merged into one figure – the Goddess Brigid. With the coming of Christianity, Paganism became absorbed and purposely phased out by the mainstream populace until eventually it was not tolerated. The Gods and Goddesses of old were diminished down to the same rank as faeries, angels, Saints, and royalty. Many of the ancient Gods and Goddesses were converted to Christian Saints by the Catholic Church as a means to dissolve Pagan belief systems. In Christian times she was converted to a Saint, after the actual St. Brigid of Kildare.

• Ni bu huarach im sheirc De,
  Sech ni chiuir ni cossena
  Ind nieb dibad bethath che.
• Saint Brigid was not given to sleep,
  Nor was she intermittent about God’s love of her;
  Not merely that she did not buy, she did not seek for The wealth of this world below, the holy one.
  Ni bu Sanct Brigid suanach

~ Saint Broccan Cloen

“As the Saint and Historical Person:” St. Brigid was the “Mary of the Gael” and only second in popularity to the people of Ireland next to St. Patrick. She was primarily associated with Kildare, the Curraugh, and the whole region of the Liffey Plain known as “Magh Life”.

St. Brigid was born to Dubtach or Dubhthach, the descendant of Con of the Hundred Battles, a Pagan Chieftain of Leinster; and to Brotseach or Brocca, A Christian Pict of the house of O’Connor who was a slave baptized by St. Patrick. St. Brigid was believed to have been born somewhere between 451-458 C.E (453 most common) at Faughart near Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland.

Some accounts state that Dubhthach, her father, was from Lusitania and kidnapped by Irish pirates and brought to Ireland to work as a slave in the same regard as happened with Saint Patrick. Her mother, Brotseach, was also believed to be a slave of Dubtach who was sold off shortly before Brigid’s birth to a Druid who lived at Faughart a few miles from Dundalk.

Apparently, much of this regard in her life affected Brigid’s views on things, especially with the concept of people being property. Dubtach, her father and his family were natives of Leinster and Fr. Swayne, the late Parish Priest of Kildare, who claims they were from Umaras between Monasterevin and Rathangan in County Kildare.

She was baptized in the Christian faith under the name of “Brid” or “Brigid”. Legend has it though that she was weaned on the milk of a white-red-eared cow, the color of the beasts of the Tuatha De Danann. Throughout her life, Brigid was especially kind to the people she encountered and was notorious in the legend for miracles to be associated with her.

One legend tells of her as a child in charge of the dairy by her mother that she gave away so much milk and butter to the poor people where they lived that none was left for her family. She knew her mother would be furious so resorted to prayer. As an answer to her prayers, when her mother visited the dairy, she found an abundance of milk and butter. She was also known to be a lover of animals and had many tales of her kindness to stray and starving dogs.

In childhood, she supposedly encountered St. Patrick. Supposedly she was brought to hear him preach and when she listened to him she fell into ecstasy. She was so dedicated to charity, taking care of common people, healing the sick, and her faith that when she reached marriage age, she instead decided to dedicate herself to religious life. Pagan lore states she was one of the guardians of the Sacred Flame and Shrine of the Goddess Brigid in Kildare.

Christian tales tell of her leaving home with seven other young girls and traveling to County Meath where St. Maccaille the Bishop resided. The Bishop was hesitant to instate the girls because of their young age into the order. During prayer, it was here that they experienced a column of fire that reached the roof of the church resting on Brigid’s head. The Bishop gave the veil to the eight young girls upon hearing of this miracle. St. Maccaille’s Church was on Croghan Hill in County Westmeath, and it was here that St. Brigid founded the first convent in Ireland which attracted many ladies of nobility as postulants and it was here that Brigid and her sisters completed their novitiate.

After completion, they journeyed to Ardagh where they made their final vows to St. Mel, the Bishop of Ardagh and nephew of St. Patrick. Brigid founded another convent here and remained for 12 years. At the Bishop’s request, she sent sisters to various parts of Ireland to establish new foundations including herself.

As St. Brigid traveled around Ireland, she visited with St. Patrick when he was preaching at Taillte or Telltown in County Meath to obtain his blessing. Throughout her travels, she conducted blessings and miracles along the way gaining Sainthood. The Leinstermen knew Brigid was from their province and constantly asked for her to return home amongst them and was offered any site in that province. She decided to make her foundation on Druim Criadh near the Liffey in what eventually grew into Kildare. She chose a spot on the ridge of clay near a large oak tree and decided to build her oratory beneath its branches. Purportedly there was already a shrine to the Goddess Brigid here. The new foundation prospered and grew quickly. Girls from all over Ireland and even abroad came to St. Brigid’s foundation to join the community. The foundation was named after the “Church of the Oak” or “Cill Dara” which evolved into modern-day Kildare. The poor, the afflicted, the sorrowful came to Kildare for Brigid’s healing, advice, and guidance.

Besides a church, Brigid built a small oratory at Kildare which became a center of religion and learning and developed into a Cathedral city with two monastic institutions, one for men and another for women with St. Conleth appointed as spiritual pastor for both of them. She also founded a school of art, including metalwork and illumination that St. Conleth presided over as well. From this was produced the “Book of Kildare” which was praised by Giraldus Cambrensis as having every page fantastically illuminated with interlaced work and a harmony of colors that it was the work of Angels and not of Humans, but it has long since vanished since the Reformation.

St. Brigid statue, Kildare

An unusual community was developed at Kildare with both monks and nuns at the same location. St. Mel, an old and doddery Bishop was appointed to watch over the foundation and ordain priests there. Legend has it that instead of professing St. Brigid as a nun, he consecrated her as a Bishop giving her all the privileges that came with the title. At some point, the legend of St. Brigid and the Curraugh came into place. She apparently requested land from the King of Leinster, and he laughed at her request telling her he’d give her as much land as her cloak could cover. She spread out her cloak, and it covers the entire extent of the Curraugh, and that is why the Irish believe the Curraugh came to be.

The Kings of Leinster showered gifts onto the convent with the privilege of sanctuary conferred on the foundation so that any law offenders seeking refuge were safe there. St. Brigid chose St. Conleth to be her Bishop. He mounted his chariot and asked for Brigid’s blessing before his journey home near Newbridge. As he raced across the Curraugh he discovered that his wheel was loose through the entire journey and believed it was Brigid’s blessing that it had not fallen off and killed him. St. Conleth was consecrated as the first Bishop of Kildare in 490. They worked very well together even though rumored to have had a complex relationship.

Legend has it that Brigid gave all the vestments which Conleth used for saying Mass to the poor. He became upset with her as he got them in Italy, so Brigid prayed, and vestments exactly resembling those given away immediately manifested, and Conleth was appeased. In 519, St. Conleth decided to go on a pilgrimage to Rome without St. Brigid’s permission or blessings, and he didn’t get very far before being killed by a wolf near Dunlavin in County Wicklow.

No one knows for sure when St. Brigid died, but she was believed to have reached age 70, and is purported to have died between 521-528 C.E. Story has it that upon her deathbed, Saint Ninnidh, or “Ninnidh of the Clean Hand” attended her to administer the last rites of “Ireland’s Patroness”. She was interred at the right of the high altar of the Kildare Cathedral with a costly tomb erected over her. After her death, the monastery flourished.

Around 650, the first “Life of St. Brigid” or “Vita Brigitae” was written by a monk named Cogitosus. Both St. Brigid and St. Conleth were buried in the Church with ornate shrines of gold, silver, gems, precious stones, and ornamentation. In 836 A Danish fleet of 30 ships arrived in the Liffey and another in the Boyne that plundered Kildare with fire and sword carrying off the shrines of St. Brigid and St. Conleth. However, it was said that in premonition of this event, in 835, the order hid the remains of St. Brigid in Downpatrick. Unfortunately, the Danes attacked and plundered Downpatrick as well. To protect her body and remains, the priests buried her in a secret place only those priests knew which has now been lost.

In 1185 St. Malachy sought out St. Brigid’s burial place which was supposed to have been buried with St. Patrick and St. Columba claiming to have found their resting places. He petitioned Pope Urban 111 to reinter the remains of all of them to Down Cathedral and did so on 9 June 1186 during the Feast of St. Columcille. During Henry VIII’s reign, during the Dissolution, the new shrine was desecrated, and the relics of the Saints were scattered except some were saved from destruction. The hand (some accounts state the head) of St. Brigid now rests in Lumiar, Portugal (near Lisbon) in a chapel devoted to her in the Church of St. John the Baptist. Another of her body parts as a relic is located in St. Martin’s in Cologne. St Brigid’s Day.

Current Observations of St. Brigid: St. Brigid is highly revered in Roman Catholicism, especially in Ireland and England. In addition, many Eastern Orthodox Christians venerate her as one of the great Western saints before the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches.

St. Brigid and the Goddess Brigid are celebrated on the 1st of February, the Pagan feast of Imbolc, the Festival of Spring celebrating the coming of fertility to the land. It is common to make a Brid’s bed and Brigid Cross in celebration. An eternal flame called “St. Brigid’s Fire” is kept in her honor and since the beginning was tended by 20 “servants of the Lord” with Brigid being the 20th attendee. Since her death, she miraculously tends the fire which never goes out, but is still aided by 19 sisters or attendees keeping the flame alive.

The flame has been kept alive uninterrupted for over 1,000 years with only one interruption in the 1200s when Henry of London, Norman arch-bishop of Dublin, ordered it to be extinguished as he believed this to be a Pagan practice. It was immediately re-lit by the locals but finally extinguished during the Reformation.

St. Brigid Crosses are still weaved to this day as a symbol of sun worship representing the sun in the center with rays of light coming from it in the shapes of the arms of the Cross. St. Brigid has two Sacred Wells and a Wishing Tree in Kildare. She has numerous wells associated with her throughout the world, the most notable being in England and Ireland. These were sites of veneration for the Druidic faith, and many had an associated sacred tree or commonly referred to these days as a “wishing tree” where votive offerings of cloth were tied for healing or prayer petitions. Brigid’s girdle is capable of curing all diseases and illness and so the waters of her well and the sacred trees are pilgrimaged by people from all over the world for healing. As earlier mentioned, St. Brigid is next to St. Patrick in popularity with the Irish and has dedicants, dedications, shrines, and orders to her throughout Ireland and Britain.

Brighid’s Flame